Neglected
by Lightning-Dono
Summary: When Jeb leaves his only son to be with the flock, Ari is left with a statement his doesn't understand...and resents. [OneShot]


**Lightning-Dono**: I read "Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment" for Book Club at school and I absolutely fell in LOVE with it. That book is so, so awesome, so here I am writing a fanfic on it. This is my take on Ari's past, and it's slightly incorrect since I don't remember the time settings exactly (I returned the book), but it should fit somewhat.

**Neglected ****  
By: **Lightning-Chan (AKA Lightning-Dono or...me.)**  
Status**: ONE-SHOT.  
When Jeb leaves Ari,Ari is left with a message that he doesn't understand...

-

Ari was but three, waddling obediently behind his father as though the rest of the world failed to exist. Echoes followed his footsteps, men and women clicking back and forth across the hardened gray floor. Wires streamed across the ceilings in a poor attempt to lower the threatening look of the building, but even a visitor stepping foot into the high-security area could feel doom lurking within the shadows. But Ari, having lived here all his life, felt a connection to the dead, gray building.

"Son, hurry," urged his father, Jeb, who was also donning a white lab coat, stained with an array of chemicals that had managed to find their way onto it.

"Why?" Asked Ari, panting from trying to keep up with his father's large strides. What was wrong today? His father had never rushed him on a normal day. Were they going to feed him now? He was hungry, yet he lost his appetite when he came across a caged, unknown specimen that was sprouting bits of bush-like growth from it's patched fur. Ari could've sworn that it was a dog, but being so young, he wasn't quite sure.

"You'll see," Jeb said, leading his son to a large metal door that required a password combo and the unlatching of a miniscule object that only the employees were told of. "It's something I am very excited about. Once you hear about this, you'll be excited for daddy, too!" Beeping ensued and the metal door slid open, revealing a bunch of tranquilized humans. Nothing intentionally horrible had happened to them, and the group looked quite normal. Minus the fact that feathery wings were sprouting from their arms and that they were piled against each other in a most unbecoming formation.

"Who are the rest of them?" Questioned Ari, who was very curious as to why these hybrids were here, having only recognized Max, Fang, Nudge, and Izzy. Having been taught in a place that rivaled that of a science lab, he had learned to speak very fluently and was beginning to learn science terms, as well. Jeb, of course, couldn't do with an unintelligent son, so he had planned this from the start.

Jeb cast his son a sly smile and immediately averted his attention to the flock.

"They, Ari, are the work of many years. Finally, they have developed enough for the wings to grow visible. A child that I have had my eye on for a while now I plan to call Angel...with her, this flock will be complete, and with her, I'll finally be able to set them free. With the cooperation of her parents, of course...And perhaps I shall collect her brother, also. After all, Angel is only two – perhaps too much of a hassle for the parents."

The young boy stared at his "sister". Oh, how he longed to have her look at him like a normal human being instead of filth. But now, she'd be gone in a matter of days and he wouldn't have any say in it. The older members of the experiments constantly shunned Ari, and even more so by Max for reasons he couldn't comprehend. Was there a reason for these actions she gave into?

Jeb stared at his son with a scary look that reflected only impatience. "Of course, I'll be going to live with what I have now today. Angel and her brother can wait – they will be delivered to me once the staff have done their share of convincing." It was times of true ambition that he truly looked as though he were the mad scientist that hid deep inside his soul.

"But what about me?" Squeaked the young boy, clearly confused about what his father was getting at. Certainly he wouldn't leave his only son in such a place in the care of scientists who only cared about injecting DNA into animals?

The tall, skinny man leaned over slowly and ruffled his son's dark hair, a smile dawning on his gaunt face – a face that showed how many days he unhealthily stayed awake through to ensure the success of his hybrids. His precious hybrids that were seemingly worth more than his own son.

"Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it," grinned Ari's father kindly. "Time goes by fairly quickly, you know."

"B-But why do you have to go?" Spluttered Ari, tears welling in his eyes. "Why do you have to go with them?"

"Because I must," Jeb replied shortly, his voice growing soft.

Ari grew frustrated with his father's behavior. Why should he leave with kids that were old enough to take care of themselves? The other day he had set free a human that had been mutated to a goat and he was only six. What difference should it make now when it came to Max and the others?

Either Jeb could read minds or he deciphered the look on Ari's reddening face, but in the least mysterious-sounding voice he could muster, he breathed, "Because Max is your sister." Into his son's delicate ear. In a more commanding voice, he snapped the four in the flock awake and led them to a back door.

"No...No she's not!" The young, shivering boy insisted, glancing at Max with a sense of inferiority. "No sister would be like that!" Max and the others, however, were outside, testing their wings clumsily and laughing at each other's klutzy attempts to fly. She always did that, no matter how much Ari tried to avert her attention to him. He was only three years of age – couldn't she atleast shed a ray of warmth onto him? But no, the person he used to idolize as an infant constantly neglected him.

-

**Flashback**

-

_"Max!" Ari hollered joyously, bouncing around as though this was the best day of his life. "Lookie!" He shoved the paper with a drawing of the sky into her arms. Having never actually been outside before, the only glimpse of sky he ever got were through pictures his father had taken and through barred windows. Ari only dared to show Max, as Fang and Iggy were often grumpy and Nudge was asleep most of the time. _

_"What's this?" Max asked, trying not to sound disgusted as she lay her eyes upon the mass of varying shades of blue, splatters of yellow sunlight streaking across it. Smack in the middle of the drawing was what looked like a fireball hurled through space at the ground. _

_"The sky," the young boy said, looking anxiously up at his friend's face. Or as close as he would ever get to having a friend. Max's left eye looked as though it were undergoing laser surgery, it was twitching hard. _

_"Did you...copy this?" She asked, wondering if this was a natural amount of artistic talent for a three-year old to have. It wasn't excellent, but it wasn't just scribbling, either. While the colors clashed somewhat, it incorporated many shades, that somewhat made it pleasant and painful at the same time. _

_The boy shook his head and jabbed a skinny, skeletal finger towards a calendar that was hanging at a bizarre angle on the wall. "There's a picture with the sky in it in there. I looked." He continued to smile with radiating innocence. _

_Max returned his smile weakly, cast aside the picture, and continued to look out through the barred window she sat infront of, looking as though she had been jailed for life._

_"Do you like it?" Asked Ari, indicating the picture timidly, expecting Max to lash out with her waning temper._

_The girl sighed, nodding her head slowly. "It makes me want to fly."_

_That was the last thing she said to him for months._

-

**End Flashback**

-

Jeb decided not to answer that statement.

"You can't be stubborn in times like this," he said calmly, a single trace of annoyance passing his eyes. "You must learn to live without me for a while. You won't always have someone there to care for you."

With that, his lab coat flaring behind him, Ari's father walked out of his son's life.

Confused, Ari dropped to his knees and wept onto the cold, gray tiles. Tiles that he would walk on four years later with his father...to get revenge on the sister who had refused to love him for the first three years of his life.


End file.
